Alfredo Häberli Design Development

Alfredo Häberli is a gifted observer. He explores the everyday to its very roots, searching out solutions to shortcomings and changing habits, and he shapes what he discovers into objects that are new to the eye but familiar to the soul. As he has said, ‘Observation is the finest form of thinking.’ While his chairs, armchairs and glass sets are both skilfully formed and stylistically confident, they possess a sophistication that often only becomes apparent at second glance or during use. The teapot designed for the Danish manufacturer Georg Jensen, for example, catches the tea egg in its neck after brewing so that tea does not drip onto the table as typically happens when a tea strainer is removed.

Alfredo Häberli was born in Argentina to Swiss parents and first came to Switzerland with them at the age of 13. In his work and as a person he combines Helvetian craftsmanship with a southern way of life. His designs breathe lightness and dynamism. Evocative forms, filigree structures and a minimal use of materials give his products their lightness; oblique lines and tapered volumes their dynamism. Alfredo Häberli’s objects have such a natural and convincing appearance that it is easy to overlook how much hard work, perseverance and knowledge of design history – as well as contemporary works – are needed to arrive at such solutions. His objects have been selling in large quantities for many years now and are already regarded as steady long-term sellers.

Alfredo Häberli’s career has been marked by long and fruitful collaborations with various manufacturers of furniture and home accessories. At the beginning of his career, in the 1990s, these were primarily renowned Italian labels, but since 2000 Scandinavian companies have also featured increasingly. In Switzerland, Alfredo Häberli has collaborated with the furniture makers Pfister since 2009 as the curator of a new collection, Atelier Pfister, with which he has opened the door for numerous younger Swiss designers to create their first mass-produced design object. In 2012, he completed the extensive interior decoration of the 25hours Hotel in Zurich West. Häberli’s designs have received increasing international attention through, for example, collaborations with the Australian cosmetics company Aesop and the Mallorcan shoemaker Camper, for whom he has designed not only shoes but also more than 20 boutiques in cities such as Malaga, Moscow, Tokyo and Brisbane. The designer and his work have been featured in trade and general-interest media throughout the world. In 2006, he was the guest of honour at the Biennale Interieur in Kortrijk, Belgium. Alfredo Häberli thus contributes not only as a successful and award-winning product and interior designer, but also as an ambassador of Swiss design excellence.

Text: Ariana Pradal, 1975, designer, journalist, curator for design and architecture, Zurich

Swiss Grand Prix of Design 2014
Bundesamt für Kultur (BAK) / Swiss Federal Office of Culture (FOC)  
Ariana Pradal
   

Laudatio by Patrick Reymond, Architect and Designer Atelier Oï